Havens wins approval in bankruptcy court

A deal between bankrupt Havens Steel Co. and its bonding company will allow the design and fabrication firm to stay open.

Havens, an 85-year-old Kansas City, Mo., company that employs 700, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection March 18, after struggling with the rising price of scrap steel.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Venters approved a 30-day agreement that would provide Havens with up to $80 million in credit and new surety bonds. A final deal must be approved by Havens’ creditors.

The company operates a plant in Ottawa that employs about 150 people.

Technology

Microsoft offers patches to avoid possible attack

Microsoft Corp. released three critical patches Tuesday to fix Windows security flaws that could allow an attacker to take over another person’s computer.

The patches, released as part of Microsoft’s regular monthly update, apply to Windows editions dating back to Windows 98, and also affect server systems going back to Windows NT Server 4.0.

The repairs are aimed at preventing an unauthorized person from being able to install new programs or to view, change or delete data on someone else’s computer.

Similar flaws resulted in the Blaster worm, which hobbled hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide last August.

A security expert predicted that the latest flaws could result in a similar attack, perhaps as soon as two weeks from now.

“There’s definitely going to be attacks that come from this, just because of the criticalness of the vulnerability,” said Marc Maiffret, of Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based eEye Digital Security Inc., which found some of the flaws.

Wall Street

Johnson & Johnson posts healthy earnings

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday reported a 20 percent increase in first-quarter profit as soaring sales in all its divisions and favorable currency exchange rates more than offset higher spending.

The company posted net income of $2.49 billion, or 83 cents per share, for the January-March period versus $2.07 billion, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.

The latest results beat by 3 cents a share the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Labor

Hays call center to close

For the second time in four months, Sykes Enterprises Inc. has announced it would close its call center in Hays.

Sykes first announced in January that it would close the facility, saying in paperwork filed with the state that 262 employees would be affected. But the company said last month that it would keep the plant open at least temporarily.

Then, on Tuesday, Sykes again told employees that it would be closing the call center. In a memo to workers, the Tampa, Fla.-based company indicated it would close the facility June 14.

Sykes won’t say how many employees work at the call center. Last week, Sykes announced plans to close its Manhattan call center.